In 1971, Poggioli began working for Ansa, the Italian news service, at their English desk. She made her debut on NPR on September 4, 1982. She continued serving both Ansa and NPR for four years before leaving Ansa in 1986.

Poggioli eventually rose to European correspondent for NPR. Her radio career was interrupted in 1990 when she spent a year as a research fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

Poggioli has become a favorite reporter of the Magliozzi Brothers on Car Talk, possibly on account of their common Italian ancestry. Her name has also been featured in the absurdist comic strip Zippy the Pinhead.

In 2000, Poggioli received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Brandeis University. In 2006, she received an honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts at Boston.